University of Tasmania, Australia

What role can lifelong education and schooling play in contributing to a more just, equitable and peaceful world, where there is sustainable economic and social development for all and poverty reduction? In this public lecture Prof Rupert Mclean AO will examine these matters with particular reference to developing countries in Asia-Pacific.

Although current international action to achieve Education for All, Education for Sustainable Development and the United Nations Millennium Development Goals provides a useful foundation for action, this is insufficient. It is also important to pay greater attention to devising concrete, action-orientated ways of promoting social justice and peace building, through means such as lifelong learning, skills development for employability, values/ethics education, and high quality, relevant educational research, in the light of political realities.

The presentation will focus on the work of the United Nations (UN), and in particular UNESCO, which is the specialist UN organization concerned with strengthening and upgrading education and schooling in developing countries, countries in transition and those in a post-conflict situation.

Prof Mclean holds three concurrent professorial positions at the Hong Kong Institute of Education: Chair Professor of International Education; UNESCO Chair in Technical and Vocational Education and Training and Lifelong Education; and Director of the Centre for Lifelong Learning Research and Development.